Best of MLB: Brawls Lead to 8 Ejections in Tigers' Win Over Yankees

DETROIT -- Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera and Yankees catcher Austin Romine wrestled on the ground near home plate during the first of three bench-clearing altercations during the Tigers' testy 10-6 victory over New York on Thursday.

Five players were ejected, along with both managers and the Yankees' bench coach.

Justin Upton and James McCann homered for Detroit, and Gary Sanchez went deep for the Yankees, but that all became secondary on a day when the umpires had their hands full trying to maintain order. Major League Baseball figures to be busy now, sorting out likely suspensions that could especially hurt the playoff-contending Yankees.

The winning and losing pitchers -- Detroit's Alex Wilson (2-4) and New York's Dellin Betances (3-5) -- were among those ejected. Betances was tossed after hitting a batter in the helmet with a pitch, and argued with the umps.

The ill will carried over to the Detroit dugout, too, where star pitcher Justin Verlander and teammates Victor Martinez and Nicholas Castellanos got into some sort of dispute.

Shane Greene got five outs for his fourth save (see full recap).

Dodgers top Pirates for 90th win
PITTSBURGH -- Yasmani Grandal and Adrian Gonzalez hit back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers pulled away from the Pittsburgh Pirates for a 5-2 victory Thursday, their 90th win of the season.

Grandal's 18th of the year gave the Dodgers a two-run lead. Gonzalez pushed it to three moments later with a shot to nearly the same spot in the right-field seats for his second of the season and 100th with Los Angeles. Curtis Granderson hit his 22nd home run of the season. Chris Taylor chipped in three hits and Kike Hernandez added two hits on his 26th birthday.

Hyun-Jin Ryu (5-6) held the Pirates to one run over six innings. Brandon Morrow worked the ninth for first save since 2009. Los Angeles improved to 90-36, becoming the 12th team in major league history to reach the 90-win plateau in 126 games (see full recap).

Valaika HR helps Rockies rally past Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Pat Valaika hit a two-run homer with two out in the eighth inning and Greg Holland finished for his 36th save in the Colorado Rockies' 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Thursday.

Valaika snapped an 0-for-12 slide, driving a full-count pitch from Mike Minor (5-6) to left after Gerardo Parra singled.

Holland worked a perfect ninth. He allowed Eric Hosmer's game-ending, three run homer in the ninth inning Wednesday night and was 0-4 with three blown saves in his previous six appearances.

Adam Ottavino (2-3) struck out two in a perfect seventh.

The Rockies snapped a four-game losing streak with just their fifth victory in 17 games.

Rookie Jake Junis limited the Rockies to one run and seven hits over 5 1-3 innings. He matched his career high with seven strikeouts and walked one. The right-hander is 2-0 with a 1.86 ERA in three August starts, walking one and striking out 16 in 19 1-3 innings.

Whit Merrifield and Brandon Moss led off the Royals' first and second innings with home runs. It was Merrifield's third career leadoff home run, all this season, and his eighth hit in 15 at-bats. Moss hit his 17th home run, 14 of them with the bases empty (see full recap).

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